Residents of the sleepy Saskatchewan village of Atwater awoke to a surprise Wednesday: Statistics Canada had declared their hometown abandoned.

The 2011 census, which found Saskatchewan’s population increased by 6.7%, topping one million for the first time since 1986, listed Atwater as having no dwellings or residents.

Longtime resident Brenda Rausch initially believed she and the rest of the town were part of an elaborate practical joke, before realizing the census really hadn’t counted the tiny village, about 170 km northeast of Regina.

“I guess we’re having a hard time proving we exist,” she said. “Everybody sent their censuses in; I know I did. I guess I’m just confused how we fell off the map.”

The town has only one business, the garage owned by Ms. Rausch and her husband, and boasts a village council of a mayor and two councillors.

“We think it’s pretty funny because we know we’re here, we’re paying our taxes and our electrical bills; we thought it was a joke,” she said. “I mean, we just celebrated our centennial last summer. We have two churches and a town hall. We definitely exist, I can tell you that.”

According to Ms. Rausch, Atwater has actually grown since the 2006 census, when 25 residents were listed. There are about 34 people living there now, ranging from toddlers to 70-year-olds.

Residents confirm they were surveyed by census officials. The snafu may be due to an error in census zoning, according to Marc Hamel, director general of Census Canada.

“In this case, it could be a delineation error, where they [Atwater residents] were allocated to another region, but they were likely still counted,” he said. “Sometimes, very rarely, we run in to these anomalies, and we have a process for undertaking reviews in such a case.”

Though Census Canada had not heard any official complaints or requests for review as of Thursday, Mr. Hamel said they would launch an investigation if they receive such a request by the end of the year.

“If we hear from residents, or the province of Saskatchewan, we would conduct a thorough investigation to determine our future course of action,” he said. “It’s very rare that we actually miss dwellings, so we’ll be finding sources and investigating if we are asked to.”

Some residents, including David Williams, are calling for such an investigation, and are demanding a quick fix.

“There are people living here, and it [the census] should show that there are people living here,” he said. “They should fix it so it shows that Atwater is still here, and it’s still occupied. We have younger people moving in and all the houses are occupied.”

Ms. Rausch, however, is approaching it with a sense of humour.

“We want to get this sorted out, of course, but it’s kind of making us laugh because we can trace us existing in so many different ways, but the government somehow misplaced us,” she said. “Hopefully they’ll be able to find us soon enough.”